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So Troy and Deebo play best when not constrained by LeBeau's overly, and unnecessarily, complex scheme? I'll buy that.

I was thinking of James dropping into coverage before his 100 yard INT return in the SuperBowl. And I've heard Farrior comment about James not really knowing the defense and mentioning he's still impossible to block and makes plays anyway.

Then with Troy, I think of last week when he looks like he's in coverage and then sneaks through the LOS to make a play in the backfield.

I was thinking of James dropping into coverage before his 100 yard INT return in the SuperBowl. And I've heard Farrior comment about James not really knowing the defense and mentioning he's still impossible to block and makes plays anyway.

Then with Troy, I think of last week when he looks like he's in coverage and then sneaks through the LOS to make a play in the backfield.

I've said all season long LeBeau has gone too conservative and if the players are taking matters into their own hands to overcome that then good on them. That said, not counting on Harrison ever to be what he was if even on the team which I think is a 50-50 at best.

Playing Fantasy Football does not qualify you to be the in the front office or on the coaching staff of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They are professionals and you are not!

I am willing to give Ben a pass on the early games. Installing a new offense and offensive philosophy there was bound to be some adjustment. (ok, you can point to Manning in Denver, but the fact is they are running Manning's offense, not someone else's).
Ben needs to man-up and make the new offense his next season. There were early signs this season that he could thrive in this offense. I still think he sorely misses Ward on broken plays. Some point to Heath as that go to guy, but unfortunately due to a porous OL, he isn't running patterns on every play like a Hernandez.

I am not certain how Ben is going to make the new offense his. Offenses can generally thrive around the league if QB's play well.

Now if people are tying the team's fortunes to the way Ben performs then they need to hold him mostly accountable for when the team fails. But no, people will continue to blame everyone else under the sun because Ben is the franchise QB.

Ben played inconsistent football this season like he always did for all of his career. The huge difference from the past vs this season is that Ben always found ways to win games in the past. He wasn't able to lead this team down the field in 5 of the close games they loss. Ben has never been the type of QB that helps an offense produce a lot of points. Making plays at key times in games to help the team win was Ben's thing. If he can't win games in the end, the Steelers could be in for more rocky seasons.

I've said all season long LeBeau has gone too conservative and if the players are taking matters into their own hands to overcome that then good on them. That said, not counting on Harrison ever to be what he was if even on the team which I think is a 50-50 at best.

Just a thought here on the "conservative nature" of the defense this year. Could it be that between Harrison, Woodley, Polamalu, Taylor and Lewis being injured and not on the field and being replaced by Worilds, Carter, Will Allen, Victorian and a practice squad player that I can't remember, that Lebeau was trying to protect the defense until the new players got in the groove. Once Worilds started making fewer mistakes it seemed the defense was more aggressive, the same with Will Allen, Carter, and the cornerbacks replacing Taylor and Lewis. The Dallas game Lebeau was doing his best to hide our 4th and 5th DBs on the depth chart and had it not been for an ill-advised throw late he may have actually pulled it off.

Anyhow, that's what I thought all year that Lebeau was trying to get the defense up to speed without 3 of his 4 best play makers on the field at the same time. I think against Cincinnati we got a glimpse of what the defense can do when they are healthy and minus Ike. With Ike, we may not be lamenting a lost season, for some reason I believe he would have had AJ Green covered on that last play prior to the winning FG.

Consider the source of the article. Dutch Wydo aka moneymaker IIRC is the biggest Big Ben fan and apologist around. He isn't a Steeler fan as much as he is a Ben fan. He wrote the article, which I don't completely disagree with, to take heat off his guy. I will agree that Tomlin needs to tighten the ship, but I think it was Ben that accounted for alot of the most important turnovers that killed this season. This team will go as Ben goes, the way it is set up now.

Consider the source of the article. Dutch Wydo aka moneymaker IIRC is the biggest Big Ben fan and apologist around. He isn't a Steeler fan as much as he is a Ben fan. He wrote the article, which I don't completely disagree with, to take heat off his guy. I will agree that Tomlin needs to tighten the ship, but I think it was Ben that accounted for alot of the most important turnovers that killed this season. This team will go as Ben goes, the way it is set up now.

I think any team will go as goes their QB. It's not a Ben or Steelers unique thing. That is why we need to consider strengthening the OL even more and building depth so we don't have a repeat of the performance drop off when the OL started to be decimated by injuries. Chance Warmack in Round 1.

Playing Fantasy Football does not qualify you to be the in the front office or on the coaching staff of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They are professionals and you are not!

I hear ya SC. I have always been a Tomlin supporter, but these are some serious areas which need improving. It indicates a team that lacks discipline and that concerns me. That starts with the top.

Yea, it starts at the top, but you have to give the top a bigger body of work before you consider cutting off your head. He's been way too successful to entertain any thoughts of change. However, when I listened to his normal presser I too, at that moment, would have instantly fired him and promoted Haley. I've calmed down now and believe Tomlin is the right man. He just needs to re-dedicate and do whatever its going to take to bring us back from the dead.

But posting stuff by Mr. Smartmonies himself does not increase your credibility with me...quite the opposite, in fact...

I read too much of his tripe at the old board to even attempt slogging though his latest hot mess...

Slap, please don't take this with any disrespect because that isn't my intention. But, your gauge of my credibility isn't of any concern to me. And while there are several guys who have a very visceral reaction towards Dutch, I like the guy and I like what he writes for the most part. The articles are Steeler related, and relevant. I know there are others who enjoy what he writes as well. So, my advice to you would be to skip past any articles that I post of his (as I am known to do from time to time). I always post his name, so it makes it easy for you to sort through it.

Yea, it starts at the top, but you have to give the top a bigger body of work before you consider cutting off your head. He's been way too successful to entertain any thoughts of change. However, when I listened to his normal presser I too, at that moment, would have instantly fired him and promoted Haley. I've calmed down now and believe Tomlin is the right man. He just needs to re-dedicate and do whatever its going to take to bring us back from the dead.

I hear you about his success, and while I don't disagree...the stats posted are from his entire career. So, Tomlin has produced winning teams even though they don't take care of the ball...are not overtly impressive in the take away categories, and are highly penalized.

What that tells me isn't that Tomlin needs replaced. It means that there is room for improvment and these areas stand some scrutiny.